Hello! Thanks for all the nice reviews on the previous chapters! Here is chapter six. A little more dramatic this time around. Enjoy!

Sketches

chapter 6

The phone in the dormitory rang.

"Allô?" Colette answered.

"It's Roslin. Please get a cab and come get me at the theater."

"What's—"

"I will explain later."

"I'm coming." Colette hung up the phone, grabbed a sweater, her bag, and keys, and ran outside to hail a cab.

"The cinema on Rue des Ecoles," she told the driver.

Once they arrived at the theater, Colette saw Roslin standing outside, clutching onto herself, her hands tightly clasping her elbows. Colette opened the door of the car and waved to her; she noticed the air was not very cold. Roslin's eyes were fixed on the ground as she rushed into the cab. Her jaw was clenched and her complexion pale.

"What happened?" Colette asked her. "What's wrong? Are you sick?"

Roslin shook her head. "Later," she said.

Again inside the dormitory, Colette asked Roslin, "Did you eat?"

Roslin sat down on Colette's bottom bunk. Still clutching herself, she shook her head, no.

"I'll get soup. Be right back." With that, Colette rushed out.

The frail redhead lied down, eyes wide open, very stiff.

When Colette came back in, carrying a small cup of store-bought soup, she found her roommate collapsed on her bed trembling.

"Roslin, what happened?" she asked. "You know, I did not actually expect you to call, I just said that as a precautionary—"

"Colette, you were right," Roslin interrupted. "Men are only after one thing!" Roslin had been weeping, but now she burst into tears, holding her face in her hands.

"Mon dieu, what did he do to you? Tell me everything." Colette placed her arms around Roslin's tiny shuddering shoulders.

"Everything?" Roslin looked up, her eyes red, her lips puffy, and her complexion blotchy. Colette nodded. Roslin turned to face her roommate, but looked down at the floor. "Oh, Colette, he must have thought I am some type of cheap slut or he wouldn't have asked me out!" she cried some more.

Colette rubbed her back kindly, while inwardly fuming at the boy before she even knew what he had done. "Calm down. It's okay. Tell me..."

Roslin sniffed. "First he picked me up in the parking structure twenty minutes late—"

"You were outside in the cold for twenty minutes?! Eat the soup."

Roslin's hands shook as she brought a spoonful to her lips. Eventually she calmed down.
"Are you better?" Colette, who had watched her eating asked, "He picked you up late, then what?"

"Then he drove to the cinema and – and – in the car, he touched me, and—" her voice was strained. Colette could tell this was hard for her. "He—he said 'hey baby, you want to try something?'" Colette scoffed at this. Roslin continued, "I just slipped out of the car, brushed it off. We went into the theater, watched the movie, but he wouldn't keep his damn fingers off my thigh! He constantly – he – Ahh! I can't even say it!" Roslin looked directly into her friend's eyes, "He groped me," she whispered. "He said, 'after this, I'll take you to my place.'
"I was so tense; I don't even know what the stupid movie was about. When it was over, I just ran out into the restroom at the theater and called you from there. I told him to leave without me. Wasn't feeling well. Roommate would pick me up."

"Roslin..." Colette looked at her hard. Shaking her head, she asked, "Why did you put up with it? Why didn't you just leave when it started?"

"I don't know... I was scared... didn't want to make a scene... sort of paralyzed. Pretty stupid yeah?"

Colette stood up. "That idiot boy, I will kill him if he ever tries a stunt like that on anyone again! Goddamned son of a bitch. Messing around with my friend..." She stopped when she noticed Roslin staring shame-facedly at the floor again.

"Colette, I should have listened to you in the beginning. I was so naive."

"Eh... I can't really blame you. You're too nice to just walk out. You poor thing," Colette wrapped her arms around Roslin in a comforting, sister-like embrace. It was like one of those lonely nights at home when Maman had been crying, and she and her sisters only had each other for comfort. Colette's heart felt sad when she remembered Roslin had no siblings. She absently smoothed her long red locks with one had as Roslin's back shook lightly with a fresh batch of tears. It was not long thereafter that Colette realized her eyes were blurry and her face was wet as well...

Out of nowhere, a laugh broke out of Colette's lips. Another giggle followed. Roslin broke the embrace and looked up, wiping off a tear with the back of her hand. "What?" she asked while Colette began a full-fledged fit of giggles, clutching her stomach and rocking back and forth on the floor, her face shiny with tears.

"Look at me! I never cry!" more giggles. "I'm sorry Roslin, it's just too weird!" Roslin began to join in the laughter. Soon both girls were rolling around on the floor laughing, momentarily forgetting the night's events.

"Hahaa! Do you think you could call this PMS?"
"That would be a nice cover-up for insanity!"

"Touché! Hahahaa!"

Later, things calmed down again. The girls went to bed, emotionally exhausted.